The College d'Orléans was
established by an act of the Territorial Legislature in 1811, having been in the planning stages since 1805.
The legislature appropriated $15,000 for its founding, and the City of New Orleans donated land and
buildings that had been part of the plantation of Claude Tremé. Administered by a board of regents,
the College (really a combined primary and secondary school) opened at the end of 1811. It was never a
financial success, plagued by mismanagement and a certain amount of scandal over some of its
administrators. By 1826, it was forced to close. It remains, however, the Territory's first attempt to provide
for the higher education of its new citizens.

This letter to the Conseil de Ville from Louis Moreau Lislet, one of the College's regents (and one of the
authors of Louisiana's civil code), lays out the terms of the 1811 agreement, outlining the obligations of the
Territory and the City.[Conseil de Ville. Letters, Petitions and Reports, #576]